Northumberland County Council must set a balanced budget each financial year.
This year, the worldwide Covid pandemic has presented profound challenges for the whole local government sector.
Councils, including Northumberland, have been on the front line of responding to Covid, adapting quickly to keep vital services operating, supporting our schools to stay open throughout, whilst protecting the most vulnerable people in our communities.
Alongside this, we have continued to develop plans for economic recovery and progressed delivery of investment in the county’s infrastructure.
Our Council and indeed the wider local government family have stepped up responded to all the challenges of Covid, keeping our county services running and supporting businesses to keep going in difficult circumstances.
We always knew the financial context was going to be challenging in 2020-21 and moving ahead. And, this has only intensified as a result of Covid where we have experienced increased spending pressures alongside falling income. We have pushed Government hard to support residents, local services and businesses during this time and, of course, welcome the additional funding that has been provided by Government.
This additional support has not so far filled all of the funding gap created by Covid and we continue to make the case to Government for a funding settlement that recognises the significant pressures on our Council.
So, local government is operating in a period of significant financial uncertainty brought about by ongoing significant budget pressures (including in social care, special educational needs, and disability services), as well as other unfunded pressures.
Covid adds a further layer of complexity and uncertainty. That is why we, along with almost all councils, are pushing for additional Government funding in the one-year spending review which we expect to be announced at the end of the month.
Latest developments
On 25 November, the Chancellor announced a one year spending review which we need to consider as part of our budget savings. Whilst we need to wait for the Local Government Finance Settlement from Government to assess the detailed position for the Council, the main provision relating to local government funding are:
What’s changed since the budget papers were published on 10 November?
Our budget consultation will only focus on proposals for 2021, and not proposals for future years.
In addition, following the Comprehensive Spending Review announcement on 25 November, local authorities were offered more flexibility around setting Council Tax.
The Council fully recognises the hardship that Covid has brought to many people.
Therefore, in Northumberland, we intend to use those flexibilities, and propose to only increase our Council Tax increase by 1.99%, and split the Adult Social Care Precept over two years – with an increase of 1.75% in 2021, and then 1.25% the following year.
What are we consulting on?
The Council must set a balanced budget each financial year, but we have some tough decisions to make.
A savings requirement of £8.3 million has been identified as required to balance the budget for 2021-22.
Our savings proposals have been and will continue to be developed using the following principles:
You can view a copy of the draft proposed budget papers here.
The global Covid pandemic has presented profound challenges for us all this year. This is also true of the local government sector. Councils, including ours, have been on the front line of responding to Covid, adapting quickly to keep vital services operating, supporting our schools to stay open throughout, and protecting the most vulnerable people in our communities.
Alongside this, we have continued to develop plans for economic recovery and progressed delivery of investment in the county’s infrastructure – from new schools to leisure centres and roads.
We always knew the financial context was going to be challenging this year - as well as into the future - and this is where we’d like you to have your say.
We’ve always prided ourselves as being a council that listens to its residents so that's why we’re opening up a discussion on our budget proposals and asking you for your views.
It will be a genuine consultation on the challenges we face, and an opportunity for people to let us know how they’d prioritise the services we deliver.
We’ll be gathering all this information together which will help us make some key decisions for the next financial year.
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